Schools in Western Placer School District..how are they? (Roseville: short sales, foreclosures)

[lokobuff]

Husband is being transferred to Beale AFB and we will be moving in January. Going out to visit in December and any info regarding the elementary schools would be great. We are looking in the Lincoln area possibly and have also heard to look in Nevada Valley (I think that it the name??). Have a daughter in 1st grade and we will live in an area we like but also one that has a good school for her to go to. Husband will deploy so I want to be in a neighborhood with young families. Also, do you suggest possibly renting as opposed to buying. What is the housing market like other than ridiculously high!! Any info is appreciated

[KidBlue]

Just noticed no one had answered you yet. I'm not familiar with the district, but Placer County is a really nice place to live and the schools reflect this. You can check out various statistics about CA districts on the California Dept. of Education Web site at: www.cde.ca.gov/dataquest/ (broken link)

and www.ed-data.k12.ca.us/welcome.asp. Good luck with your search.

[Mumof3]

Hi,
I lived in Placer County from January '03 - March '06. We lived in Rocklin and then Lincoln.. my kids attended schools in both cities. The API scores (which if you are not from CA are used to rate schools in this state) are high in Rocklin - (anything over 800+ is considered good - and most are..) however in Lincoln the same cannot be said - they rank considerably lower and the High school there in particular is supposed to be one of the lowest in the state for API stats.. In regards to the amenities available to new residents I would say that Rocklin is superior to Lincoln, mainly it has to do with the availability of parks and other recreation activities..Lincoln is sadly lacking..where We lived (in the Twelve Bridges tract) there was hardly anywhere for my daughter to meet with other kids her age and this became more of an issue as She got older. You might want to look at the Whitney Ranch development as this is quite close to Lincoln but is in Rocklin so you would benefit from their school district. Also if you have special needs kids which I do, Rocklin has more services for them through the school district.
All in all if I went back to live there I would probably choose Rocklin again- people are ok and if you are into the church as so many are, you will fit right in!!

Nevada County has Nevada City in it and this is probably what you are referring to - this is very nice and rural - lots of pretty trees - it is quite away from Lincoln however at least an hours drive - Grass Valley is one of the main towns in Nevada County and is really nice - great town centre.

Roseville is nice too. It was voted one of the top 100 places to live in the nation recently. It has many parks and good recreation activities which do reflect in the high house prices and also a good school district judging by the API stats. Good luck!!! It is generally a nice place to live - I would recommend you rent first and then at least you can look around and explore before putting that deposit down!!!

[LRV476]

Another good website to check out would be www.GreatSchools.net (broken link) If you type in the city you're looking for, it will give you all the schools in the area, and will sometimes give parent ratings/comments. Roseville/Rocklin are considered to have excellent schools in the area, we lived/live in both, but our daughter is only 2. Lincoln up until 5 years ago was a sleepy rural town. It has since boomed with new housing and schools, my assumption is it will only be a matter of time before the schools have to rise up to the demand of the incoming/surrounding residents. There are young families aplenty in all three areas- Lincoln being the most diversified. Also, I just mentioned this on another thread, if you are looking to buy, ask your agent for short sales in the area- it usually gives you more leverage to barter. But since the market is soooo slow, you shouldn't have trouble finding something between 350-450K in Roseville/Rocklin and less in Lincoln if you hop into a new home, where incentives are being offered left and right. The only disadvantage to new homes is you may/may not know how the neighborhood will turn out. If all else fails, rent for a few months while you get a feel for the area(s).

[McDoodle]

I noticed a lot of beautiful and surprisingly affordable homes in the southern part of Lincoln on both sides of the 65. I was wondering if these areas are looking like they will hold up or are they already becoming scarey? I noticed there are a lot of short sale homes in these nice looking subdivisions with HOAs. Are the new subs in southern parts of Lincoln nice with a few foreclosures because this is normal? Is one side of the 65 better than the other? Or are they going ghetto with basket ball goals lining the streets along with the shopping carts people bring home from the grocery? Or is that just SoCal?
Is Lincoln Crossing Elementary new? I cannot find any data on it to get an idea what the scores/teachers/students were like. How is Twelve Bridges? I absolutely would not let my daughter go to the schools on the north side of Lincoln. I've seen the scores on greatschools.net. We are moving from SoCal because these have to be the worst schools in the state and I'm tired of seeing people using bed sheets as window treatments.
I fell in love with the Rocklin area, but when I saw the size of the houses on huge lots in Lincoln I was blown away. And I did not go to Lincoln when I was there - we stayed in Rocklin. I know Rocklin is much nicer than the "old" Lincoln. Does it look like this will always be so or is the southern part of Lincoln giving it hope? The area was so pretty and green I think it would be hard to be unhappy either way. Or is it nasty outside Rocklin?